Friday, October 17, 2014

As I sat now to see
the India West Indies ODI at Dharamsala, Indians had set a huge target and
somehow the competitiveness was missing.
Dwayne Smith scratched around without making runs in 11 balls and Kieron
Pollard, touted to be a big hitter made 6 off 31.

Way back at Sialkot in ODI no. 273, India opened with
unusual pair of Anshuman Gaekwad and Ghulam Parkar. Dilip Vengsarkar was unbeaten on 94; Sandip
Patil had made 59 – Indians were 210 for 3 in 40 overs ….. a sure 300 these
days ! – curiously the Captain was Mohinder Amarnath (and not Gavaskar); Indian
bowling attack was Madanlal, Sandhu, Mohinder, Binny, Maninder and Shastri (not
sure why Kapil was not there for this match !) ……….. sadly, this match was abandoned – not the abandonment – but the
reason was sad. It was 31st Oct 1984,
the day when our PM Smt Indira Gandhi was assassinated. The tour was abandoned.

Not to make any
invidious comparisons, the West Indies tour to India has been called off
suddenly due to the ongoing payment structure dispute between the players and
the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) and WIPA. The fourth ODI in Dharamsala
will be their last game of the series, which was scheduled to have a fifth ODI,
a Twenty20 international as well as three Tests. India will now play five ODIs
against Sri Lankabetween November 1 and 15, after Sri Lanka Cricket accepted
the BCCI's invitation to fill the void.

The BCCI said it was
"shocked and disappointed" and that the decision to abandon the tour
had been "taken by the WICB." Before the game, Dwayne Bravo, the West
Indies ODI captain, had indicated something serious was brewing when he told
Ian Bishop, the television commentator, at the toss: "Time to make a
decision." Bravo was accompanied by his West Indies team-mates who stood
beside him.

Earlier, Virat Kohli
cracked his 20th ODI hundred and Suresh Raina and Ajinkya Rahane made fifties
as India looted a seemingly eager-to-leave West Indies for 330 runs in
Dharamsala. The news that West Indies had pulled out of the tour due to their
payment dispute with their board broke during India's innings, and the visitors
backed that up with a shoddy bowling and fielding performance.

There could be many other tours which had been abandoned
– among that in Mar 2009, the bus carrying Sri Lankan cricketers, part of a
larger convoy, was fired upon by 12 gunmen, near the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore,
Pakistan. The cricketers were on their way to play the third day of the second
Test against the Pakistani cricket team. Six members of the Sri Lanka national
cricket team were injured. Six Pakistani policemen and two civilians were
killed. The team players were airlifted
and Lankans duly abandoned that tour